Zika AG129 Mouse Model

Zika Virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavirus associated with the recent outbreak of febrile disease across the Americas. Zika infection causes Zika fever and infection during pregnancy is hypothesized to cause micocephaly in neonates. The IFN α/β and IFN γ receptor deficient AG129 mouse model using ZIKV FSS13025 strain is based on previously described model (Rossi, et al., 2016). AG129 mice aged 6-8 week challenged with FSS13025 strain have a mean time to death of 11-12 days post infection.

This is a biologically relevant model for studying ZIKV infection that does not rely on intracerebral inoculation and it has the following advantages:

Lethal and/or non-lethal ZIKV infection model

No need for mouse-adapted ZIKV strains

Consistent symptoms associated with disease development

Well suited to screen antiviral compounds and vaccine candidate efficacy